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Mark Gamin, a Cleveland lawyer, likes cats and birds both. He likes books too, which made him the ideal reviewer for Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer. This is Mark’s first contribution to 10,000 Birds. Agonizing quandaries concerning invasive species are well-known to wildlife biologists. In Oregon, the Barred Owl is taking over Northern Spotted Owl territory and threatening that smaller bird’s survival.
One of the most popular breed in tortoise domestication is the Russian tortoise, also go by several other names like – Horsefield tortoise or Steppe tortoise etc. They are usually found in dry climates – like deserts and grassland areas … Continue reading → The post Russian Tortoise appeared first on 4 The Love of Animals.
Issue Date: 2017-10-03. Author: Lance Tyson. Teaser: Most assumptions we make about millennials in the workplace are wrong. More important, anyone who wants to be managing a successful organization 10 years from now needs to figure out a way to harness the strengths of this generation, rather than pointing out the perceived deficiencies. Most assumptions we make about millennials in the workplace are wrong.
I dipped a bird recently – possibly a lifer. While crossing Gramos Mountain in northern Greece, a Dendrocopos woodpecker flew over the road and landed in a pine tree. First I noticed a red cap – a male, then striped flanks and pale-red undertail, but couldn’t see its wing because some part of the bird remained hidden by a branch at any given time. I had two possibilities, an uncommon Middle Spotted or scarce White-backed Woodpecker – which would have been a lifer for me.
When my book “ Flyaway: How A Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings ” came out in 2009, one of my favorite reviews was by Corey Finger of 10,000 Birds. At that point I didn’t know about 10,000 Birds; I had been a wildlife rehabilitator and mother for years, with no time to surf the net for amazing birding sites. Corey is a birder, not a rehabber, but he understood what I was trying to convey – what makes rehabbers tick, and why we keep going, and why we need help.
This blog is written by writer, photographer, and animal advocate Ingrid Taylar. Years ago, I became a wildlife volunteer and advocate because of a cat who caught a bird. A sweet Mourning Dove , his crop stuffed with seeds from a feeder, struck gold when he landed atop a pile of millet and sunflower. Now, he lay frightened and ruffled in my hands, his tail tattered, his feathers damp from the maw of a cat named Puck.
This blog is written by writer, photographer, and animal advocate Ingrid Taylar. Years ago, I became a wildlife volunteer and advocate because of a cat who caught a bird. A sweet Mourning Dove , his crop stuffed with seeds from a feeder, struck gold when he landed atop a pile of millet and sunflower. Now, he lay frightened and ruffled in my hands, his tail tattered, his feathers damp from the maw of a cat named Puck.
Dear readers of 10,000 Birds, I have a small favor to ask of you. It will take you less than a minute, cost you nothing, and make me very happy. Please, please, please head over and sign this petition to restore the feeders to Forest Park. For some unknown bureaucratic reason the New York City Parks Department decided to take down the feeders and not allow them to be restored.
I recently wrote a short story here on 10,000 Birds about one of our endemic species, the Belding’s Yellowthroat , Geothlypis belding beldingi. and its status on the Threatened Species List. Todos Santo, an ocean side village, is a 56 mile trip, west across the Baja to the Pacific Ocean side. At the edge of the ocean, and town, there is a brackish water lagoon, and this is where our story plays out.
In the wild and wonderful animal kingdom, being born with a birth defect, or receiving a maiming injury is most certainly going to be fatal, and usually pretty quickly. Being born without a foot, for a bird, would certainly qualify as this type of ailment. In the long run, feeding and sleeping, are all things that would be effected to the point where quality of life, and life expectancy would be dramatically altered.
It’s been a head-scratcher for quite some time. What’s with the yellow-shafted Northern Flickers in the eastern U.S. bearing some orange feathers? (As in the photo above, courtesy of C. Hansen) The birds in question weren’t anywhere near the mid-continental hybridization zone where they could fraternize with their western red-shafted brethren. New research in The Auk: Ornithological Advances appears to have zeroed in on the culprit.
“Everything counts in large amounts …” That lyric may be all well and good for Depeche Mode (make that, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shortlisted Depeche Mode), but sometimes, smaller amounts count just as much. Take the Florida Scrub-Jay. (Photo above by Louise Hunt, courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology) At just about 5,000 individuals, Florida’s only exclusive endemic is Endangered.
I spent some time with fellow Audubon members on the Northern California coast last weekend where we were treated with some great views of a first winter Mew Gull ( Larus canus ), commonly known as the Common Gull in Eurasia. Click on photos for full sized images. The Mew Gull is the smallest of the “white-headed” gulls in North America, where it was formerly known as the Short-billed Gull.
One of the key features of birds, and I use the term “key” literally, is vocalization. Very few other vertebrates use sound so socially and so critically. Primates are exceptional among the mammals, living amphibians (which represent only a small part of the original amphibian family tree) are pretty noisy too. Fish are mostly silent on the matter. Birds are also unique or rare, depending on the trait, in the present day with their feathers, their particular modality of flight, their unusual res
I’m a big fan of city birding. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy getting away from it all out in some remote forest or desert, but a good city can combine some excellent birding and outstanding diving, drinking, dining and sightseeing. Of these great cities Cape Town is fast becoming one of my favourite birding spots in the the world. Perched near the spot were the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet, it combines an utterly outstanding location with excellent wine country, a fabulous historic
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British birders are very serious about birding and their birds. This is a very good thing; it means they publish a lot of books about birds (probably more at this point than U.S. publishers); they host something called a Birdfair that maybe someday 10,000 Birds will send me to visit; they produce outstanding birders, some of whom come over to the U.S. and share their expertise , or do big years or write excellent blog posts.
Carara National Park isn’t just any old protected area. It’s one of the top birding hotspots in Costa Rica and Central America. Actually, it’s not really the park on its own that is responsible for such accolades but the protected area in conjunction with the surrounding mega blend of habitats that include rainforest, tropical dry forest, mangroves, an estuary, and the usual addition of open fields and second growth that always boost the bird list.
It’s almost Halloween! As your resident writer of horror fiction (check out my latest at The Dark !) this is my time to shine. No one does the intersection of scary and ornithology better than me! The world of scary birds has been in flux recently, with many of the traditional leaders in the field shifting focus or falling by the wayside. Owls as a group, for instance, have gone from omens of doom to adorable hipster mascots – I blame J.
Last Sunday, in between taking pictures of Butterbutts , I was walking through some rather tall weeds at Jacob Riis Park when a Yellow-billed Cuckoo flushed, flew over a fence, and disappeared. Though I was pleased to get an identifiable look at a cuckoo in October I was kind of bummed that I didn’t manage an image. Nonetheless, I found the strength to carry on and birded around the park for awhile, not really finding anything terribly interesting.
This is that time of year here in Mexico, where everything “birds” slows down to a crawl. We have hit our peak summer temperatures, at steady 100F plus or minus, with humidity’s hovering around 80%. I have no tours booked, and no migrant species have made it this far yet. As much as I suffer, I can’t help but think about what the combination does to the birds that live in this extreme desert environment.
Before it was lumped with the western subspecies, the eastern version of the Yellow-rumped Warbler was (and may someday again be) called the Myrtle Warbler. Personally, I prefer to call them Butterbutts. Whatever you call them, they are near ubiquitous along the coast in the northeastern United States this time of year as they feed up on a variety of berries including bayberries, from whose genus, Myrica , the Myrtle Warbler gets its name.
Costa Rica is situated right between two oceans. To the north of this mountainous isthmus, we have the Atlantic. In the other direction, the Pacific. The pair of seas are close enough for the occasional adventurous frigatebird to just soar way up and right over to the other salty basin. The proximity of both slopes also facilitates seeing a lot of different species in a short span because the montane barrier has resulted in differences in terms of species and habitats.
Leaf peeping carries a special connotation for those of us more interested in what is flying amidst the foliage. But many parts of the northern temperate zones have attained the height of autumnal splendor just in time for the weekend. Whether you are focusing on leaves or birds, keep your peepers wide open! I’ll definitely be hiking around the Finger Lakes region for the best vantage point from which to drink in the vibrant colors of fall.
At least one weekend a year, bats–particularly the vampiric kind–command more attention than birds, at least from most people. Nature lovers, on the other hand, find time for wildlife watching every weekend. Just be sure to choose a Halloween costume that doesn’t obscure your vision too much! I saw lots of different kinds of woodpeckers this weekend, but that big, honking Pileated always wins out over the others for Best Bird honors.
In every temperate zone comes a moment in spring and a similar one in fall when, all of a sudden, POOF… like magic, the migrants are gone. Maybe you live somewhere reliable for rarities, in which case that unfortunate time may not fall for some time yet. But other locales, closer to the poles and further from the coast, may see migration drying up already, perhaps even over entirely.
Another weekend, another opportunity to regret not spending enough time outdoors. Anyone out there know how that feels? Between work and weather, I didn’t see much this weekend, but my kids and I spotted a mesmerizing flock of European Starlings wheeling about in intricate formations. Appreciation of invasive species may be somewhat heretical in some naturalist circles, but watching these huge winter flocks always entertains.
I’m back! Back to the site, and back from 6 weeks in Africa (with four weeks gloriously cut off from any news of an election kind… I highly recommend it). Of course, travelling from Africa back to New Zealand is a big deal and I’m still somewhat fried (especially as real life hit with with a bat when I got back). So, just a quickie today… I’m a big fan of sunbirds, which are essentially the Old World equivalent of hummingbirds, minus the humming.
I’ve written before about the surprising and sometimes lovely variety of forms that the simple Rock Pigeon can take, and how much fun there is in simply through sorting through a flock – like the one that inevitably gathers around the dumpsters of the grocery store a block from my apartment and wages a battle of attrition with the paint job of every car that parks on the street.
Every summer animal agencies are inundated with calls from concerned citizens alerting us to dogs that have been left or locked in hot cars. It can take less than six minutes for a dog to suffer extreme heat exhaustion and … Continue reading → The post Dogs in hot cars appeared first on 4 The Love of Animals.
Without pointing to specifics, it is safe to say that the world seems pretty scary right now, particularly for those of us concerned with protecting nature and endangered animals and ecosystems. Good thing Halloween has arrived to replace real fears with pretend ones. Enjoy this festive weekend, but be ready, if and when your time comes, to allay our collective fears by supporting wise environmental stewardship.
Score one for the good guys. After invasive rats had effectively extirpated Manx Shearwaters from two of the Isles of Scilly—British islands off the southwestern coast of Cornwall—Prince Charles and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) sprang into action. And the results speak for themselves: A new survey found 73 nesting pairs of Manx Shearwaters, and 30 chicks, on the islands of St.
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